Traffic Light Reflection

Run this activity after students have had some time working in groups, when you see a few groups struggling, or when you predict that obstacles are about to emerge. It is an opportunity for students to reflect on collaboration in their group, and to have a productive conversation about optimising how the group works together.

Step 1

Put an image of a traffic light on the board, with all the colours visible. Open a conversation about collaboration in teams and co-create the criteria with students. If green is the most positive form of collaboration, what would be happening in a team if they were in the green zone of collaboration? Place student contributions next to the image. Repeat with the next two colours – orange being a decent, okay, tolerable form of collaboration. And red being the emergency zone for collaboration – things are not going well at all.

Step 2

Now, encourage students to reflect individually on whether their group is in a red, orange, or green zone of collaboration. On a page or post-it note, ask students to write the zone that best represents their group, and some reasons why.

Step 3

Guide students through a structured sharing session in their groups. The goal of the conversation is to discuss issues and highlight wins in a respectful and mature way. Remind students about the importance of respect for your team members, to allow for productive and open conversations. The sharing could proceed as follows:

– Allow each member to share their rating and reasons without being interrupted, and without discussion.
– Then, discuss as a group. What obstacles or difficulties were shared that you can agree with? Which would you like to discuss more? What positives happened, and why?
– How can you translate this discussion into a plan of attack… What should you do more of as a team, and how can you do that? What should you do less of as a team, and how can you do that?